DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2533#0138
THE GEOMETRIC STYLE
101
seem to be Mycenaean, while the quality of the clay is decidedly inferior. But as this
principle of decoration is practically the same as that already considered, these vases are
properly to be discussed here. The shapes are fairly uniform, though slight variations
may be detected in the height of the neck, size of the handles, fullness of the body,
separation of the foot from the body, etc.
The decoration follows a consistent scheme, in that the body is reserved for parallel
stripes or bands and the shoulder for other motives, as rays, vertical lines, wavy bands,
zigzags, rosettes, etc. The neck is occasionally ornamented in similar fashion.
Fig. 40. Height, 0.09 m. Coarse reddish clay, with red decoration. Parallel stripes on body,
with rays on shoulder. Stripes inside rim and on handle. The foot
is separated from the body.
Fig. 40 is a typical example of the class. About half of these vases
have a flat base, without a foot.
Two-handled Vase.
Fig. 41. Height, 0.05 m. Yellowish clay, with
dull brown decoration. Two handles (restored),
with a hole running through the sides; no open-
ing in the top.
I have been unable to find any example similar
to this vase. It must be regarded as a mere freak
of the potters' art, with no definite ruison d'etre. Fig. 41.
Fig. 40.
CHAPTER III.
THE GEOMETRIC STYLE.
It would seem at first sight as if vases of the Geometric style were the most nu-
merous at the Heraeum, since their fragments rilled about twice as many baskets as either
those of the Mycenaean or Argive styles. But as Geometric fragments are generally fairly
large in size, since they belong to large vases, and the Argive fragments extremely
small, it was found that the actual number of vases represented by Argive fragments
was considerably larger than those represented by the Geometric.
For many reasons an intelligent presentation of the Geometric fragments has proved
extremely difficult. Owing to the larger size of the vases, hardly a single one was found
intact, and in no case could more than a third of any vase be reconstructed, though
some vases were represented by several hundred fragments apiece. Although the num-
ber of shapes represented is extremely large, many are so closely allied to each other —
the chief variations being in the number of handles, the shape of the neck, etc. — that,
without the whole, or at least the greater part of a vase, a systematic classification based
upon sbapes becomes difficult, if not impossible. Then, too, almost the entire surface of
the vase is covered with a decoration combining many different motives, and in such
a case it was difficult to decide which fragments should be presented and which not,
since there was danger, in a classification based on ornamentation alone, of treating sep-
arately motives which belonged to the same vase. Finally, hardly a single new type of
this style was found at the Heraenm; the decoration on almost every fragment repre-
sented may be paralleled by dozens of vases scattered through the museums of Europe.
The style also presents this peculiarity, that it is far more conservative than any other
101
seem to be Mycenaean, while the quality of the clay is decidedly inferior. But as this
principle of decoration is practically the same as that already considered, these vases are
properly to be discussed here. The shapes are fairly uniform, though slight variations
may be detected in the height of the neck, size of the handles, fullness of the body,
separation of the foot from the body, etc.
The decoration follows a consistent scheme, in that the body is reserved for parallel
stripes or bands and the shoulder for other motives, as rays, vertical lines, wavy bands,
zigzags, rosettes, etc. The neck is occasionally ornamented in similar fashion.
Fig. 40. Height, 0.09 m. Coarse reddish clay, with red decoration. Parallel stripes on body,
with rays on shoulder. Stripes inside rim and on handle. The foot
is separated from the body.
Fig. 40 is a typical example of the class. About half of these vases
have a flat base, without a foot.
Two-handled Vase.
Fig. 41. Height, 0.05 m. Yellowish clay, with
dull brown decoration. Two handles (restored),
with a hole running through the sides; no open-
ing in the top.
I have been unable to find any example similar
to this vase. It must be regarded as a mere freak
of the potters' art, with no definite ruison d'etre. Fig. 41.
Fig. 40.
CHAPTER III.
THE GEOMETRIC STYLE.
It would seem at first sight as if vases of the Geometric style were the most nu-
merous at the Heraeum, since their fragments rilled about twice as many baskets as either
those of the Mycenaean or Argive styles. But as Geometric fragments are generally fairly
large in size, since they belong to large vases, and the Argive fragments extremely
small, it was found that the actual number of vases represented by Argive fragments
was considerably larger than those represented by the Geometric.
For many reasons an intelligent presentation of the Geometric fragments has proved
extremely difficult. Owing to the larger size of the vases, hardly a single one was found
intact, and in no case could more than a third of any vase be reconstructed, though
some vases were represented by several hundred fragments apiece. Although the num-
ber of shapes represented is extremely large, many are so closely allied to each other —
the chief variations being in the number of handles, the shape of the neck, etc. — that,
without the whole, or at least the greater part of a vase, a systematic classification based
upon sbapes becomes difficult, if not impossible. Then, too, almost the entire surface of
the vase is covered with a decoration combining many different motives, and in such
a case it was difficult to decide which fragments should be presented and which not,
since there was danger, in a classification based on ornamentation alone, of treating sep-
arately motives which belonged to the same vase. Finally, hardly a single new type of
this style was found at the Heraenm; the decoration on almost every fragment repre-
sented may be paralleled by dozens of vases scattered through the museums of Europe.
The style also presents this peculiarity, that it is far more conservative than any other